Dean Blandino, the former Vice President of Officiating (2013-17) for the NFL, recently commented on whether legalized sports gambling has affected the job of officials.
On the latest episode of the Awful Announcing podcast, he mentioned that although he couldn’t say that it has impacted their job, he acknowledged that it has increased scrutiny. Blandino explained that the NFL has strict protocols in place for officials, and even before they are hired, an NFL security representative goes door-to-door in their neighborhood to talk to their neighbors. This practice is still in place today.
“They look at all of your business associations. They look for conflicts of interest — all of that, bank accounts, everything,” Balndino told host Brandon Contes. “And there’s checks during the season. And so, they’ll look at if a game official has $10 in their bank account on Friday, and then they work a game, and now there’s $100,000; that’s a red flag, right? So, you’re checking those things. You’re monitoring the betting lines and looking at how calls impact those lines and are their individual officials that are involved in more of those calls. It’s a massive, massive undertaking. Because what the league doesn’t want and what we never wanted was a situation like what happened with the NBA, right?”
This is to avoid a situation similar to the NBA scandal involving Tim Donaghy, a former NBA official. An FBI investigation uncovered allegations that he bet on games he officiated during his last two seasons and made calls that affected the point spread in the game. The NFL wants to prevent such incidents from happening.
“It’s created more scrutiny,” said Blandino. “I think it’s created more pressure, and that’s not gonna change. It’s only going to increase as we move forward.”
Contes asked Blandino if he’s ever heard of an NFL official being approached by somebody about trying to impact a score, a stat line, or anything like that in a game.
“We’ve had situations where people were approached,” Blandino revealed. “We’ve always told our game officials because they’re in hotels — they’re traveling around during the season — we didn’t want them wearing NFL-branded gear. We didn’t want them to be inconspicuous because someone sees them and ‘Oh, those are the NFL officials,’ and then you never know. You don’t know who you’re gonna come across. And they know that they’re supposed to go to NFL security if something like that happens. And that has happened in the past.
“They’re not allowed to go…if they have to go to their casino, maybe in their other job, there’s a speaking engagement, it’s at a casino they can’t go in the sportsbook. They have to let the NFL know that they’re gonna be in Las Vegas for this event and are gonna be staying at wherever. There a lot of controls in place.”
While the NFL’s extensive protocols are robust, Blandino’s frank admission of past approaches and the ever-evolving nature of gambling makes it clear: the league’s battle against officiating corruption remains constant, demanding continued vigilance and adaptation.
The full episode of The Awful Announcing Podcast with Dean Blandino will be released Friday morning. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. For more content, subscribe to AA’s YouTube page.
